But the best of all the stories were, naturally, the ones told

TS - Texte 2a
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Bac S – 2010 - Anglais LV2
LVV - 10/11
But the best of all the stories were, naturally, the ones told by my mother's father, since after
all he was the only one of my relatives who'd made the remarkable trip to America and has
been old enough at the time to have anything to remember about it. How was the trip to
America, you want to know? my grandfather would repeat, chuckling softly, when I
interviewed him about his life. I couldn't tell you, because I was in the toilet throwing up the
whole time! But of course this self-deprecating joke, meant to suggest that there was no story
to tell, was part of the story of his coming to America, a story, as I knew, that had many
chapters. In no particular order, I remember, now, these stories: the one about he and his
sister, my glum Aunt Sylvia, whom he always called Susha, and whose name appears on the
passenger manifest, now available online through the Ellis Island database, as Sosi Jäger, had
traveled "for weeks" to get from Lwow to Rotterdam "where the boat was waiting," he would
say, and being a child with little knowledge of the world, I would be impressed, back then, to
think that such a big boat would wait for these two young people from Bolechow, a false
impression that my grandfather did little to correct; and then how, after the long trip on the
train, from Lwow to Warsaw, then Warsaw through Germany to the Netherlands, they almost
missed the boat, because the girls had such long hair.
Because the girls had such long hair?! I would exclaim. The first time I heard this story,
which was so long ago that I can't remember when it might have been, I asked the question
because I was genuinely perplexed; only now do I understand how sophisticated a storyteller
my grandfather was, what a brilliant tease because the girls had long hair was, how it was
intended to make me ask just that question, so that he could launch into his story. Later on, I
asked it simply because I knew he wanted me to.
Yes, because the girls had such long hair! he would go on, sitting there in the webbed garden
chair on the broad stoop outside the front door to my parents' house, surveying the
neighborhood, as he liked to do when he visited, with an expression of lordly satisfaction, as
if he were somehow responsible for the split-level houses in their many odd colors, the neat
lawns, the spiral topiaries pointing to the clear summer sky, the silence of this weekday noon.
And then he would tell me how, before boarding the big boat that took him and my
perennially disappointed aunt to America, all the steerage1 passengers had to be inspected for
lice, and because the girls, including my twenty-two-year-old great-aunt Sylvia, had such long
hair in those days, these preboarding examinations took a very long time, and at a certain
point my grandfather (who today, I suspect, we would describe as suffering from severe
anxiety, although in those days people just said he was "meticulous") panicked.
So what did you do? I would ask, on cue2.*
And he would say, so I yelled Fire! Fire! and in all the confusion, I took your aunt Susha's
hand and we ran up the gangplank and got on the boat! And that's how we came to America.
He would tell this story with an expression that hovered between self-congratulation and
self-deprecation, as if simultaneously pleased and (now) slightly embarrassed by the youthful
audacity that, if this story is not a lie, had won him his trip to America.
Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost, 2006 (Harper Perennial Edition)
1 steerage: third-class
2 on cue: at exactly the moment you expect or that is appropriate
TS - Texte 2a
Bac S – 2010 - Anglais LV2
LVV - 10/11
NOTE AUX CANDIDATS
Les candidats traiteront le sujet sur la copie qui leur sera fournie et veilleront à :
‐ respecter l’ordre des questions et reporter la numérotation sur la copie (numéro et lettre repère, le cas
échéant : ex. : 6b) ;
‐ faire précéder les citations de la mention de la ligne ;
‐ composer des phrases complètes à chaque fois qu’il leur est demandé de rédiger la réponse ;
‐ respecter le nombre de mots indiqué qui constitue une exigence minimale. En l'absence d'indication,
les candidats répondront brièvement à la question posée.
I. COMPRÉHENSION
THE ‘REMARKABLE TRIP’ (l. 2)
1. Say what itinerary was followed.
a. Where from?
b. Where to?
c. What for?
d. What means of transport?
2. a. How many characters made that ‘remarkable trip’?
b. How were they related to each other?
3. a. Why was the girls’ ‘long hair’ (l. 15) a problem? (40 words)
b. How was it solved? (20 words)
THE NARRATOR’S COMMENTS ON THE STORY OF THIS ‘REMARKABLE TRIP’
4. How is the narrator related to the main characters?
5. When did the narrator hear the story for the first time? Include a quote in your answer.
6. Why is the phrase (ll.16, 17, 20) ‘Because the girls had such long hair’ repeated several times?
(30-40 words)
7. a. Explain in your own words how the narrator responded to the story the first time it was told? (20
words)
b. How did the narrator respond later and why? Include a quote in your answer.
8. Seuls les candidats de la série L réaliseront cet exercice :
Traduire en français le passage de ‘But the best of all the stories…’ (l. 1) à ‘…about his life.’ (ll. 4-5)
II. EXPRESSION
Les candidats de la série S choisiront de traiter l’UN des deux sujets au choix (200 mots).
Les candidats de la série L devront obligatoirement traiter les DEUX sujets (300 mots au total, soit
environ 150 mots pour chaque sujet).
Sujet 1:
The narrator wonders ‘if this story is not a lie’ (l. 38) and asks Sylvia about her version.
It turns out to be completely different. Imagine their conversation.
Sujet 2:
What kind of stories appeal to your imagination? Say why.
TS - Texte 2a
Bac S – 2010 - Anglais LV2
LVV - 10/11
Words - Trouver la traduction des mots suivants dans le texte. Ils sont classés dans l'ordre du texte.
Word
Translation
Assez
Quoique ce soit
Glousser, pouffer
“autodérisoire”
Plaisanterie
Morne, morose
Certificat
Disponible
À travers, par
Pendant
Peu de
Connaissance
À cette époque
Varsovie
Allemagne
Pays Bas
Rater
Si + adj.
Fois
Word
Translation
Etre prévu
Pour que
(se) lancer
perron
D’une manière ou d’une autre
niveau
Pelouse
Embarquer
déçu
Devaient être
Pou (sing) poux (plur)
Y compris
Bien que
À cette époque
Passerelle
Planer, osciller
Autosatisfaction
Autodérision
Un mensonge
Transparents 
Traductions
Suggérer
Chapitres
Apparaître
Impressionné
Faux
Corriger
S’exclamer
décrire
Transparents 
Traductions
souffrir
contempler
responsable
Net
Topiaires
Passager
Examens
soupçonner
Word
Synonym
Parents, family
journey
To question
Entire
Nearly
Word
Synonym
To continue
Wide
Strange
midday
To scream
Traductions
= Mots racines
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Mots dérivés
Softly 4
Genuinely 19
A tease 20
Later 21
Webbed 23
Neighborhood 25
Lordly 25
Perennially 29
Simultaneously 38
Slightly 38
Youthful 38
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
Traductions
TS - Texte 2a
Mot 1
data
story
Week
Bac S – 2010 - Anglais LV2
= Traduction + Mot 2
=
+ base
=
+ teller
=
+ day
Irregular verbs
Infinitive
Simple past
=
=
=
=
Traduction
LVV - 10/11
> Mot composé
>
>
>
Past participle
Told 1
Made 2
= Traduction
=
=
=
Translation
To throw up 5
Meant 6
To think 13
Heard 17
Knew 22
To sit 23
Split 26
Took 28
Said 33
Ran 36
Got on 36
Came 36
Won 39
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions
of immigrants to the United States as the site of the nation's
busiest immigration station from 1892 to 1954. (Wikipedia)
A Stoop
Spiral topiary
A split-level home is a style of house in
which the floor level of one part of the
house is about half way between the floor
and ceiling of the other part of the house.
(Wikipedia)